Any one ever want a cool old car that they could drive any where and not have to worry about it well that is what I plan on doing with this car. I'm going to build a 70 challenger convertible with very little money using all used parts and make it look like a beat up survivor type car. Bought the car for 8k and only plan on putting another 2k into it. I'm going to paint it out with a gallon of $50.00 Nason machinery paint which is the same stuff I just used on this ramcharger. You can sand it and buff after to give it a real nice shine. I actually add a little bit of this special harder and wet look which makes it a little more durable as well. I'm going to leave a majority of the dents in the car and after it's painted I'm going to scuff the areas to make look like it happend after it was painted black(lol). I left some of the dents in the hood where it looks like someone had sat on the hood. The cars going to be a triple black car with black paint, black top, black interior, black side stripes with out the r/t, blacked out hood treatment, black steel rims with beat up dog dish hub caps. I'm not going to buff out any of the trim and leave the old bumpers on the car. I also going scrap up the stripes in areas, and try to hit them with a small buffer to make them look fadded. I'm also going to burn through areas on the car while buffing so it will show primer in areas. The top looks like an old JC Whitney top that has a few small rips in it that I'm going to leave the car. The back window to the car is so yellow you can't even see through it. The deck lid has an original luggage rack on it that I'm going to leave on it with it's surface rust and all. I going to buy a factory dealer decal to slap on the back of the car and make look a little used as well. The interior I'm not going to touch and plan on leaving the rear speaker in the back door panels. The dash pad has the tipical dash crack where the speakers at and thats staying as well.

I plan on driving this car like they did back in the 70's with no worries about people touching it or kids playing beside it. I plan on driving it every day during the summer. If I want to sit on the hood and have a few drinks at a party I can (lol).

Every year I go to Carlisle and there's a group of guys that come there every year and they have these kind of beat up survivor cars that they drive around the show in. One of them is a black 1970 barracuda convertible with a white strobe stripe down the side of it and I love seeing them like that .

Here's a picture of what I want my car to look like minus the red stripe and red interior and add a black stripe down the side of it and black steel rims.

Here's picture of the truck I just painted with the same kind of paint. It works great for a driver type car and can be color sanded and buffed.

I love the plan for the car. Drive em...thats what they are there for.

That's awesome. Unintentionally, I am doing the same with mine. For a while, it's going to be a beater on the outside, and a well-oiled machine underneath.

Just finished weilding a new quarter on the pass side and now I have to do the drivers side. Once that side is done I'm going to do a little body work and it will be time to spray her out. The body will be all done in a month with decals and all. Should have some pictures real soon. And if any one has any good ideas for making this project look aged please let me know.

how about adding a flattening agent to the paint?I got my car already ratted out..just had to add the 383.

Is that car the R/T convertible or is the 318 car? Either way sounds like a different idea for a change. The only thing to warn you is to expect a lot of negative from certain people. Keep us updated.

No it's not my 383 4 speed car, that car is being done up really nice and wont be driven all that much. This is just a 318 car that is pretty decent, just needs quarters and trunk extensions.

I've started working on some of the body panels for 383 4 speed plum crazy car as well. After sanding the white paint off the decklid you can see the car originaly had a white but stripe.

Good to hear you have a car you are passionate about. I just hope we don't hear of this car, down the road being sold as a survivor to some unsuspecting buyer at some show. Certainly we have all heard of the "middleman" who dopes up a car just enough to fool someone into thinking it is something it is not.

having fun and driving them is what its all about!!! who cares what others think.. carry on!!

found a site that makes old inspection stickers and thought this would make neat touch to my car.

http://inspectionsticker.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19&sort=20a&page=5

Cool Project...All you need then is a Nixon-Agnew Bumpersticker...

We'll it's all in primer and I managed to get it all block sanded last night. The black paint goes on tonight . Then once it dries I'll sand with 1500 grit on the corners and on top of the hood and trunklid and let some of the grey primer shine though. I've been collecting survivor pictures for the last week of cars so I duplicate details to my car. Here's a picture of a door that I found on ebay that shows what kind of shape the stripe on my car should look like.

Also managed to pick up a old dealership emblem from a local dodge dealership, should add a nice touch. Any one have any photos of a challenger with the dealer decal or emblem on the back, just wondering where they slapped it most of the time.

Good for you. When I was able to buy my Challenger RT back from a buddy, after 15 years, I drove it like I used to. Didn't want to worry about chips and things.

You will have a blast driving it the way it was engineered to be.

some pics

picture of some big rust holes that will covered in primer after all painted(lol).

some more pics of this jem

I left all the door dings and scraps in this door to add some character, the other door has a few as well. The fun part will be scuffing them up so it looks like it happened after.

trunk lid, cant wait to put the original semi rusted up luggage rack back on it.

the luggage rack will come in handy when I drive it down to Carlisle this summer, it's a great place to put my cooler full of road soda(lol).

I have alittle over $100.00 into this one getting it painted as I was trying to give it more eye appeal sitting in the garage, bought the decals for this car from cuda joe on ebay for around $60.00. Had it all done in one weekend. Car looked much cooler sitting in the garage after the quick paint job.

painted with the same kind of paint I'm doing my convertible with. It's great because it doesnt have that much shine in it.

another

one more

My hats off to you... I had the same idea for a B Body! love it ! way to go!! The best part is you "can" sit on the hood if you want to at a bonfire, cruise in, picnic, watching submarine races, etc...

Have fun with it...the reality is...you cant take em with you!!(I've never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse).However I did see someone getting lowered into the ground in their favorite ride. Wow...That's loyalty!

HR20

That's funny I always tell my wife when I die I want my ashes to be put in one of my cars and to be put in a spot where they wont be found.

I love the looks of this challenger t/a in the center pics with the spots of grey primer on it. That's the exact same look I'm going for but I'm not going to use grey primer, I'll use flat black.

http://forgotten-mopars.piczo.com/page100?cr=6&vsrc=search_yahoo&linkvar=000044

Can't wait to see the completed Ragtop!

BTW - your fender decals on the T/A clone are on the wrong sides...If you want another pair, pm me your address, I'll send you some F.O.C. I don't have it anymore since I sent out your 70 stripes.

My '70 Charger is being built with the same mindset. Im digging it

I never relized that Gary(lol). I no longer have that car but thank you very much for offering.
Painted the challenger out over the weekend and it came out really decent. I put the new decals(from challengergary) on it and they were very nice quality and went on great. I also got most of the car sanded with 1500 grit and should be ready to buff it out tonight. I also put the top, grill, front bumper, tail lights back in it. I'll have pictures soon.

Here's a picture I have of it after a quick buff, paints still a little to soft to buff. Need to get the dash in it so I can finish putting the trim around the window and I'll slap a new cracked front windshield that we have in it. The glass has small crack in one of the corners of it from putting the trim on it from another build, thought this would be the perfect car to use it in. You can see were I buffed through the black paint in spots.

If you look close you can also see the side stripe

got some neat decals in the mail today.

another neat touch, having a set of 80 decals made up for them so it will match the inspection sticker.

Very cool project! I've allways liked that dull "survivor-type" paint with some primer shining through at the edges.

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Cuda blog

VERY cool. Can't wait to see more pics

where did u get the Maine Inspection sticker.....haven't seen one of those in a good while.....

I think I have seen that Orange T/A somewhere before.

some more pics, I still need to buff below the body line. This car is a beater for sure(lol), but it will still be fun to take any where.

Still need to put the hood on it and the rest of the trim, side markers, seats, engine and tranny, rear valance. I put some new decals on it and made them look alittle less new(lol).

more pics

some more

We'll over the weekend I managed to get alittle more done on the challenger, new wheels, got the power top working. One of the power top hoses came off and covered me from head to toe while testing it out(lol). Still need to paint the top of the hood out.

another picture

one more for now

I liked the looks of the wheels on this red challenger so I went with a simular look.

How did you weather the decal so well?

I put a heat gun to it(lol). I think I'm going to slap a white r/t stripe on my white challenger r/t. Then I'll have to two really opposite rag tops. My white one is getting done over really nice next fall back to it's original plum crazy color so the white with white stripe will be temporary.

bought some dealer decals in the same area where my cars came from, will put these on tonight. Where do you guys think the best place is to put these on, bumper, or decklid?

Does any one make the decal for the convertible top frame (caution do not open top while driving decal).

Looks good How much to do mine like that?

I'd leave the hood in primer. It adds to the ratty look and contrasts well to the black color.

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cuda blog

Not to hijack the thread, but does anyone know of a place/person that sells/reproduces old dealer decals or emblems?

ECS is where I picked mine up. Just got the used convertible boot in the mail today, thanks to a moparts memeber. I still have under a grand into it so far(lol). I love buying used beat up parts, what a cheap way to do a car up. Painted the hood black this morning and finished hooking up the shifter and console.

Paint, primer, supplies $300.00
carpet from moparts memeber $10.00
dog dish hub caps $50.00
new front windsheild with crack free
hood 340 emblems 50.00
original used boot 50.00
tires 240.00
side stripes 60.00
small decals 60.00
hood stripe still need
wheel opening moldings still need
rear valance still need
rear decklid trim still need
front hood trim still need

My rear bumper is a little to beat up for my liking so I going to try and find another used one that's in a little better shape(lol).

I also added another funny touch to it, a passenger side side mirror that I had on a parts challenger. The mirror part of it was busted off and so I just painted the base black and bolted it on like that(lol).

new picture

This is so bada$$

I'm gonna build my '74 road runner the same way. Wonder if there'd be any intrest in a thread on that one? '73 and '74 rr's get no love and they really dont make anything for them

I just wanted to say that I like where' this is going You don't need a show car to have fun with it; or to enjoy it

I've got the motor cleaned up and ready to drop into it this weekend and the hood decal came in the mail today so that will be going on tonight. Should be able to see that decal allot better then the side stripes(lol).

more pictures of it all most done..

more..

Found a couple of decent used bumper for it that I'll put on next week. The ones that are on it now are a little to teaked(lol). Also just picked up my next project, sunroof challenger t/a and it's going to be triple black(lol). The car is an original triple black 318 70 challenger that I'm going to make into a t/a clone. It's going to be awesome and I can't wait to start it.

Very Very Nice

This a pretty cool project! Makes me wonder if I should just do the engine and trans stuff on mine and just drive it!!

Really like the way the car is coming out - too bad you're having to sell it before you complete your dream.

Hey , did the car go to queens , NY ? I think I saw two weeks ago .

Yup, 21 year old kid bought it, hit the buy it now button a little to quick and never waited to look at all the pictures of the car I wanted to send him. He had it for sale there while he was waiting for it to get picked up and sent back to me. I just picked up a nice little duster that I'm using for my daily driver and red 4 speed challenger t/a that I want to do up so my challenger ragtop beater needs to go. My duster is kind of same deal as this challenger convertible as it's got dings and dents but the duster has original paint on it. I drive it every where with no worries .

cool .Those are the best .
I spoke with my buddy Robin he's supposed to put a 440 6 pack , 4 spd & dana in the convert .
Should be nice when it's done .

this is a neat build! I think I'd might be leaving the low air tires on her!

Hello...Like your car. It looks like its coming along.
I just picked up a 71 Challenger covertible and I wondered........In your travels, have you found any convertible frame parts? I need to find a header panel for the top on mine...any ideas?

Mike